One of the big things that I think we did wrong setting out with this project was not getting quite enough input from all of YOU as to what you want and need from this kind of format – so we’re going to be changing that too.

The feedback we’ve gotten so far from the blog comments and survey we asked you to complete was invaluable in making some of these choices. There’s just one more thing I’ll be asking for your input on – but a bit more on that later…

First – let’s talk about the content, promotion and technology.

The Purpose of the Podcast

When we were thinking about starting a podcast, we knew we wanted to share great content in a variety of ways with a variety of people – but we wouldn’t be Mirasee if we didn’t take it further in terms of audience and fit!

So we went back to the foundation (any of our students want to chime in on how fun THAT process can be?) and really hammered out who we wanted to do this for, and why.

The Podcast is for (but not limited to, of course!) people who already fit our usual market but ALSO: have a need and desire to absorb information away from their computers. We want to be connecting with the folks who can listen to the podcast on their way to work, think it’s pretty cool, and share it through their phone.

This is a slightly different relationship than the kind we foster on our blog, and it’s important that the other decisions we make reflect that. This was something we simply hadn’t considered carefully enough in round 1.

Content and Format Issues and Solutions

You’ve told us the content of the Fireside Chats Series is pretty good and useful – thank you for that!

It was also nice to have Adam confirm it.

Basically, our intent is to do pretty short, but comprehensive overviews of a particular marketing or business strategy topic. The kind of overview that explains what’s going on and how to use a tool or technique at a pretty high level.

The other thing we want to be doing is interviews with awesome, interesting and inspiring people.

So that is the plan! We’ve got a couple of great shows lined up in the coming months, but have plenty of room in the schedule for your suggestions! Let me know in the comments what you’d most like to see covered.

In terms of our format, the prevailing notion is that we need to choose either an interview or conversational style and use it consistently. I’m leaning towards conversational – more of a back and forth between Danny and myself instead of an interview format where the interviewer talks too much. We’ll save the interviewing for the times we’re able to get great guests!

The takeaway here is that when you’re starting a project like this, it’s a really good idea to plan in advance what you want the style, tone and content of the podcast to look and feel like. It sounds terribly obvious, but we really thought that we’d get the hang of it without too much difficulty. That wasn’t the case, and our quality suffered because of it.

Plan things thoroughly!

We also got some excellent tips and suggestions for how and where to place our calls to action and requests for engagement – but I don’t want to spoil the surprise – listen to our next podcast and see if you can point out the differences. We’ll do a compare and contrast in a few weeks once we have some delicious metrics to talk about!

Nitty Gritty Tech Stuff

Okay, podcasting technology is not high on my list of “things I’m great at” so when Adam was able to walk us through dozens of suggestions for improving the quality of the podcast, I was absolutely thrilled.

Here are some of the things we learned:

We can track all of our subscribers and conversions using Liberated Syndication a podcast hosting service. Amazon S3 is fine, of course, but LibSyn, at about $9 a month gives us much more information about what’s going on.

Another thing we discovered was that our files are so large that anyone on a mobile would be taking a big data hit to download us. We can make the files much smaller without losing quality – something we’d been worried about.

There was some inconsistency between the quality of audio on Danny’s end and on mine – which we were aware of – but Adam gave us a cool tip for fixing it. If we use the same microphones AND call recording system we can create two separate files – one of Danny speaking and one of myself – then we can overlay them for the same level of quality on each side of the conversation instead of recording from one end only and accepting the disparity.

Finally – we need to promote the podcast much, much more on the blog! Lots of people in the survey didn’t even know we had one! If we’re going to keep it up, it needs a little more promotion time and space.

That Which We Call Our Podcast…

…by any other name would be significantly more appealing to new listeners. 😉

Okay, I’ll admit it. I’m kind of bad at naming things. I tend to have an idea and kind of cling to it, generally because of some bizarre reference or association I made with it.

Hence Fireside Chats.

Yeah, I know – we’re not Roosevelt. I just liked the name. (And come on – we were kind of addressing an empire!)

No one else really did though – so we’re going to change it.

But to what?

Here’s what we want to convey:

It’s by Mirasee

It’s a quick but thorough overview of a single business or marketing concept.

It’s insightful and clear.

I’ve got a couple of ideas – but, let’s be honest – my personal track record of coming up with names is a little weak (I’ve got a poor cat called SupperChunks…) so I would love, love, love you to suggest better names than I can come up with, and vote on your favourites.

Vote on your favorite name or add your own suggestion!

That’s about all I’ve got for this update – but you can look out for the first a shiny new podcast series in a couple of weeks – as always – please leave any suggestions you have for topics you’d like to see covered in the series in the comments.

About Megan Dougherty

Megan Dougherty is an alumnus of Mirasee and is passionate about online education, small business and making a difference in the world. You can find out what she's up to and how side-hustles will take over the world at PayingforLife.com. Follow her on Twitter at @MeganTwoCents.

I’m about to start a podcast and have discovered the benefits of Libsyn and combo-recording. Also, try using a clap at the start and end of your recording. It will help you visually line up the audio waveforms for the sync within your editor. I do one at start and end for flexibility, but you really only need one clap.

Have you studied iTunes well to see what your competition is doing and what happens in iTunes search?

I assume you want “Marketing” as a title keyword, for sure. Perhaps “Small business” would be good?

I like “Firepole Marketing Insights” but no one is searching for “insights”. Then again, your description can be used for search, too. And, you have title length to consider.

I plan on using the word “series” instead of “podcast” in the actual audio, because I may add it to youtube with a few visual overlays. The SEO and usage there is too big to ignore.

Finally, please dual record this in French as to avoid any legal issues one may have in Canada. Just kidding. 😉

I agree that the name could be short and sweet. I like Red Hot Strategies or Firepole Marketing Podcast.

“I’m leaning towards conversational – more of a back and forth between Danny and myself instead of an interview format where the interviewer talks too much.” Thank God for this because I’m getting tired of the same old, boring type of interviews. You don’t have to follow the same interview protocol as everyone else. Lighten up. Channel your inner Colbert, David Letterman, Chelsea Handler, etc. and keep interviews conversational and light, yet informative.

Finally, please interview people who have not been interviewed a bizillion times already. I know there are certain ‘experts’ out there that people gravitate towards. But I’d like to hear from new, innovative, and up and coming people. Give others a chance to be heard. Who knows? They could make more of an impact. 🙂

Hey Megan,
cool insights from firepole marketing. Really, i will honestly prefer Marketing Insights from Firepole Marketing it looks cool and in totality it suggests and emphasizes what firepole marketing stands for, which is marketing insight at it peak because i know Danny is really into marketing things more.

Hi Megan,
I much-much prefer “Firepole Marketing Podcast” because it clearly and explicitly conveys what it is – plus – it reinforces your brand. The rest of the names are OK but they dilute your branding.